University Risk Management and Insurance Association (URMIA) is uniquely dedicated to the advancement of the profession of risk management in higher education. URMIA provides community, education, and resources to an international community of over 3,100 members. The following is a preview of an article URMIA published by TIXS co-founder and managing member Patrick Mathis.

A Look at New Potential Risks

On April 19, 2024, the Department of Education (DOE) issued new regulations addressing sex discrimination in K-12 and college and university programs. These regulations (the 2024 Regulations) supersede the Title IX regulations issued by DOE in 2020 (the 2020 Regulations).
The 2024 Regulations include several significant revisions that will impose additional responsibilities, financial commitments, and potential risks for all affected schools.

Broader Scope of Coverage

The 2020 Regulations set forth specific requirements for schools’ responses to incidents of “sexual harassment” as a form of sex discrimination, including providing supportive measures when a school became aware of an incident of sexual harassment and explicit grievance procedures to be followed when a student or employee filed a formal complaint of sexual harassment. However, these protocols and procedures did not apply to other types of alleged sex discrimination. Rather schools were required to adopt procedures to address sex discrimination on their campuses, but those procedures were largely left to each school to establish, provided they adequately addressed reported incidents of discrimination.

Under the 2024 Regulations, the mandated protocols and procedures outlined therein now apply to all types of sex discrimination.

 Understand the changes in Title IX regulations that impact your institution.

Under these new regulations, a school must respond “promptly and effectively” any time that it has “knowledge of conduct that reasonably may constitute sex discrimination in its education program or activity.” This includes an obligation for those in administration leadership, teaching, or advising roles to notify the Title IX coordinator when they become aware of potential sex discrimination, and other employees to either notify the Title IX coordinator or provide information to the person who reported the potential sex discrimination. These rules do not apply to confidential employees as defined in the 2024 Regulations.

In addition, even if an individual does not file a complaint, the Title IX coordinator must determine whether to initiate a complaint regarding sex discrimination and the ensuing grievance procedures.

Even if no complaint is initiated, the school must offer supportive measures and take steps to ensure that the sex discrimination does not continue or reoccur.

To read the rest of this published article please visit: https://www.urmia.org/enews/blogs/patrick-mathis-jd-llm-mba/2024/05/24/new-title-ix-regulations-impose-new-responsibiliti